How to invoice cleaning clients.
What a UK invoice must include, how to set payment terms, and what you can do when a business customer pays late.
What every invoice must include
- A unique invoice number
- Your business name, address and contact details
- The customer's name and address
- A plain description of the cleans, with the date of each
- The date you issue the invoice
- Each amount charged, any VAT, and the total due
A limited company must use its full registered name. If you show your directors' names, show all of them. GOV.UK: Invoices, what they must include
If you're VAT registered, a VAT invoice needs more, including your VAT number. See our VAT guide for cleaning businesses.
12 Leith Walk, Edinburgh
31 Oct 2026
To: Harbour Lets Ltd, 4 Shore, Edinburgh
| Regular clean, Flat 4/2, 3 hrs · 7 Oct | £66.00 |
| Regular clean, Flat 4/2, 3 hrs · 21 Oct | £66.00 |
| Oven clean, Flat 4/2 · 21 Oct | £45.00 |
| Total due by 14 Nov 2026 | £177.00 |
Pay by bank transfer: Example Cleaning Ltd · 00-00-00 · 00000000 · ref 02471
Payment terms
Put your terms on every invoice and in your booking confirmation: when payment is due and how to pay. Homeowners on a regular clean usually pay on the day or weekly. Offices and agents usually expect 14 or 30 days.
If you agreed no date with a business customer, the law treats payment as late 30 days after they got the invoice or after the clean, whichever is later.
When a business customer pays late
For business-to-business work you can charge statutory interest of 8% plus the Bank of England base rate, unless your contract sets another rate. You can also claim a fixed sum for recovery costs, once per invoice:
- Debts up to £999.99: £40
- £1,000 to £9,999.99: £70
- £10,000 or more: £100
These rules don't apply to homeowners. GOV.UK: Late commercial payments
Habits that get you paid faster
- Invoice the day the clean is done, not at the end of the month.
- Send a statement each month to customers who owe on several invoices.
- Match bank payments to invoices weekly, so you chase the right people.
- Fix mistakes with a credit note, never by editing or deleting an invoice.
How Spick HQ helps
A finished clean becomes a numbered invoice automatically and can be emailed to the customer in your company's name. Statements, aged debtors and bank matching show who owes what. See invoices and accounts.
General information, not legal or tax advice.
Invoices that write themselves.
Free for 30 days, no card needed.